On October 27, 2019, former Vice President, and then Presidential candidate Joe Biden was denied communion while attending mass at St Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church in Florence, South Carolina. In explaining his actions, Father Robert Morey wrote, “Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of church teaching.”
Biden is far from the first Catholic politician to be denied communion. In 2004, then presidential candidate John Kerry was also the subject of a similar injunction. “Kerry’s archbishop — Boston’s own Sean O’Malley…refused to clarify a statement…that pro-choice Catholics are in a state of grave sin and cannot take communion properly…(and) St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke forbade Kerry from taking communion while campaigning in the area due to Kerry’s stance on abortion and possibly stem cell research.”
This controversy has returned to the forefront of attention in recent times when in May of this year, the Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore J. Cordileone, issued a statement “calling for Holy Communion to be withheld from public figures who support abortion rights… (e)ven though Cordileone, among the country’s most conservative Catholic leaders, did not mention (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi by name, his letter implies that figures like her should be denied Communion, the holiest of the religion’s sacraments. If an ‘erring Catholic’ continues supporting abortion rights, even after conversations with church officials, a pastor’s ‘only recourse’ is to temporarily exclude them from the sacrament, Cordileone wrote.”
There is no doubt that Nancy Pelosi is a strong advocate for abortion rights. NARAL Pro Choice America gives her a 100% rating, and as late as July of 2021, “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)..defended efforts to permit federal funding of elective abortions… In remarks at her weekly press conference in the U.S. Capitol…Pelosi said she supports a repeal of (the Hyde Amendment, federal policy since 1976 which prohibits funding of most abortions in Medicaid) because it is ‘an issue of health, of many women in America, especially those in lower-income situations and in different states…(a)nd it is something that has been a priority for many of us for a long time.'”
While not as vocal a supporter of abortion rights as Pelosi, for years Biden tried to tread a middle path through his support for the Hyde Amendment, “as did many other Democrats, often as a compromise position with Republicans.” However, “Biden’s budget proposal fulfills a campaign promise to remove…the Hyde Amendment…(t)he budget plan..would drop the policy which has restricted funding for abortion through federal programs such as Medicaid… ‘If I believe heath care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s zip code,’ Biden said in June 2019…Biden said his position had changed in response to changing circumstances, including increasing efforts by Republican lawmakers to restrict abortion.”
Despite the statements of Archbishop Cordileone, Archbishop O’Malley, and Father Morey, the Catholic Church has not been consistent in their position on this matter. In fact, shortly after Father Morey refused communion to Joe Biden, “Mr. Biden’s home diocese of Wilmington, Del., issued a statement…that ‘[t]he Church’s teachings on the protection of human life from the moment of conception [are] clear and well-known. Bishop (W. Francis) Malooly has consistently refrained from politicizing the Eucharist, and will continue to do so. His preference, as with most bishops, is to interact with politicians individually who disagree with significant church teachings.”
When Bishop Malooly retired earlier this year, his successor, Bishop William Koenig, “ said he was open to having a conversation with (Biden) on the issue and that as a bishop, he is called to teach ‘the fullness and the beauty of the Catholic faith.’”
At one point, the Pope’s position on this issue was very clear. In 2007, “Pope Benedict…warned Catholic politicians they risked excommunication from the Church and should not receive communion if they support abortion…(t)he Pope was asked whether he supported Mexican Church leaders threatening to excommunicate leftist parliamentarians who…voted to legalize abortion in Mexico City. ‘Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon (church) law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ,’ he said.”
More recently, as reported by NPR, “the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop José Gomez…informed the (Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) that U.S. bishops were preparing…to draw up a document addressing ‘the situation of Catholics in public office who support legislation allowing abortion, euthanasia and other moral evils.’ In a letter dated May 7, the head of the (doctrine office), Cardinal Luis Ladaria told Gomez that any such policy requires dialogue first among bishops themselves and then between bishops and Catholic politicians who support abortion rights — whom the cardinal specifically identified as ‘pro-choice’…In his letter, Ladaria said it would be misleading to present abortion and euthanasia as ‘the only grave matters of Catholic moral and social teaching that demand the fullest accountability on the part of Catholics.'”
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However, in June of this year, “(a)fter three days of online debate, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted by three to one to draft new guidance on the (E)ucharist. The unexpected strength of support for the move among the bishops was a rebuff to the Vatican, which had signalled (sic) its opposition…Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, who proposed the motion, said: ‘We need to accept the discipline that those who obstinately persist in grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion’…Cardinal Raymond Burke, a leading conservative and critic of Pope Francis, has previously said that politicians who ‘publicly and obstinately’ support abortion are ‘apostates’ who should not only be barred from receiving communion but deserve excommunication.”
In general, the American Bishops would seem to be standing on the firmer ground. According to Senior Editor James Keane, writing in America, The relevant sections in the Catholic code of canon law are canons 912, 915 and 916. The first, canon 912, states that ‘Any baptized person not prohibited by law can and must be admitted to holy communion’…Canon 915, directed toward priests and (E)ucharistic ministers, states that ‘[t]hose who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.’ Canon 916, directed toward the individual communicant, states that ‘[a] person who is conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible.’
“The problem often lies in the application of canon law. Mr. Biden clearly has not been prohibited by church law from receiving the Eucharist, and so it would seem that he ‘can and must be admitted to holy communion,’ according to canon 912. However, priests like Father Morey and bishops like Cardinal Burke seem to interpret canon 915 as the controlling legislation and have concluded that pro-choice politicians like Mr. Biden are ‘obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin.‘ In this view, canon 915’s prohibition overrides canon 912’s presumption of access to the sacrament.”
Of course, if the American Bishops have their way, Catholic politicians like Biden and Pelosi may be branded as apostates, excommunicated, and denied not just communion, but the other rites of the Church, such as marriage, and extreme unction (the anointing of the sick and/or dying).
Many American Catholics, themselves lax in practice and given to support of pro-abortion political positions would do well to pay attention to this issue. Prominent politicians may not be the only ones to find themselves refused communion.
Judge John Wilson (ret.) served on the bench in New York City.
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